Your Village: A Briefing for Owners and Moderators

1. What Is a Village?

A Village is a private online home for your community. It might be a family keeping memories alive across continents, a conservation group coordinating citizen science, a sports club managing events and results, or a nonprofit sharing its impact with supporters.

Unlike social media platforms, a Village:

• •Has no advertising. Your attention is not the product.
• •Sells no data. Member information stays within your Village.
• •Uses no algorithmic feeds. Content appears in the order it was shared, not ranked by engagement.
• •Is members-only. There is no “visitor” access. Every person in your Village has been invited and has signed in.

Your Village is sovereign. You set the rules. You decide what features to enable. You choose the language and terminology that fits your community. And when AI features are available, they operate under your governance — with full transparency and member consent.

Designed for Meaningful Relationships

Villages are intentionally sized for genuine connection. Research by anthropologist Robin Dunbar suggests that humans maintain approximately 150 stable relationships. Village membership tiers reflect this philosophy: starting at 50 members by default, with the ability to grow as your community needs. The goal is depth of connection, not scale.

2. Your Village, Your Vocabulary

Every community has its own language. A family does not talk about “posts” — they share memories. A conservation group does not have “discussions” — they coordinate actions. A business does not have “members” — it has clients.

The Village platform adapts its terminology to your community type. When you set up your Village, the words used throughout the platform change to match who you are.

Here are some examples:

There are nine Village types in total: Community, Family, Conservation, Diaspora, Nonprofit, Club, Business, Whanau, and Alumni. Each has its own vocabulary tailored to how that kind of group naturally communicates.

And if the default vocabulary does not quite fit, you can customise any term further during setup.

3. What Your Village Can Do

Your Village comes with a range of features, organised into groups. You choose which to enable — you do not have to use everything.

Share and Preserve

• •Stories — The heart of your Village. Members share written content with photos, tagged by category and date. Depending on your Village type, these might be called Memories, Impact Stories, Projects, or something else entirely.
• •Gallery — A shared photo and media collection. Members can upload, tag, and browse visual content together.
• •Ongoing Content — A serial publishing system for blogs, journals, newsletters, or bulletins. Members can subscribe to follow each other’s ongoing writing.
• •Document Archive — Upload and organise important documents. Categories adapt to your Village type (a family might store birth certificates and letters; a nonprofit might store grant applications and reports).

Connect

• •Real-Time Chat — Secure messaging for your Village, powered by the Matrix protocol. Conversations stay within your community.
• •Video and Voice Calls — Face-to-face conversations with Village members, with no account required on any third-party service.
• •Voice Messages — Record and share audio messages within conversations.

Coordinate

• •Calendar — Shared events and important dates. Members can create events, RSVP, and see what is coming up. Important dates (birthdays, anniversaries, commemorations) are tracked separately so they are never missed.
• •Democratic Polls — Put questions to your members and let them vote. Multiple consensus mechanisms are available.
• •Subgroups — Organise members into smaller groups within your Village. Useful for committees, teams, branches, or any natural subdivision of your community.

Smart Inbox

• •Email-to-Content — Forward emails to your Village and the system intelligently extracts content. AI classification determines what type of content it is (a story, a photo, a document) and routes it accordingly.
• •Confidence Thresholds — You set how confident the AI must be before it auto-publishes (default: 70%). Below that threshold, content goes to a review queue for a moderator to check.
• •Whitelisted Senders — Trusted email addresses can bypass the review queue.

Family Tree (Family and Whanau Villages)

• •Collaborative Family Tree — A full family tree system where any member can contribute, with support for the GEDCOM standard.
• •Geographic Mapping — Plot family locations and migrations on a map.
• •Life Phase Timeline — Visualise life events across generations.

AI Features

All AI features require explicit member consent and operate under your Village’s governance rules.

• •OCR Scanning — Upload photos of handwritten letters, old documents, or printed pages. The system reads and transcribes the text.
• •Pattern Detection — AI identifies patterns across content (recurring themes, connections between stories, related events).
• •Smart Suggestions — Context-aware recommendations to help members discover related content.
• •AI Transparency — Every AI operation is logged. Members can see what the AI did, when, and why. All AI memory features require individual opt-in consent.

Federation

• •Cross-Village Connections — Link your Village with other Villages while keeping your data sovereign. Federation agreements are mutual: both Villages must approve the connection.
• •Granular Permissions — Choose exactly what to share: member discovery, cross-Village calling, chat, even family tree search. Each permission is individually controlled.
• •Exit Rights — Either Village can terminate a federation at any time. Your data remains yours.

4. The Role of Owner

As the Village owner, you created this space. You are responsible for its health, its culture, and its direction.

What Only Owners Can Do

• •Billing and Subscription — Manage the Village subscription, payment method, and add-ons. Your tier determines capacity (member limits, storage, video minutes, concurrent calls) — all features are available at every tier. You can delegate billing authority to a treasurer without giving them full moderator access.
• •Appoint Moderators — Review members who have passed the Village Fundamentals exam and grant them trainee status to begin the moderator certification path.
• •Set Security Policy — Decide whether two-factor authentication is optional, recommended, or required for your members, and set the grace period for compliance.
• •Configure Federation — Approve or terminate connections with other Villages.
• •Feature Phases — Control which features are visible to members by advancing through phases 0-5. All features are always available to you.

What Owners Share with Moderators

Once certified, moderators work alongside you on:

• •Content moderation (reviewing flagged content, managing the review queue)
• •Member management (invitations, role assignments, subgroup organisation)
• •Communications (announcements, Smart Inbox review)
• •Analytics (understanding engagement, reviewing audit logs)

Cost Sharing

Coming soon: 2 to 10 Sustainers can share the subscription cost equally, splitting the financial responsibility among those who are most invested in keeping the Village running.

5. The Role of Moderator

Moderators are not simply appointed — they are certified. This ensures that everyone managing your Village understands its values, its tools, and their responsibilities.

The Accreditation Path

6. The Admin Tools

Certified moderators and owners have access to a set of administration tools, grouped by function.

Content Management

• •Content Moderation — Review flagged content, take action on policy violations, and communicate decisions to members.
• •Announcements — Send notifications to all members via the notification bell. Track delivery and read rates.
• •File Cleanup — Manage deleted files before they are permanently removed.

Member Management

• •User Management — View all members, edit roles, manage invitations (pending, expired, accepted), and invite new members.
• •Subgroup Management — Create and organise subgroups with flexible visibility controls.
• •User Feedback — Review and respond to feedback submitted by members.

Communication

• •Smart Inbox — Review email-to-content submissions, approve or reject AI classifications, and manage the publishing queue.
• •Portal Contacts — Manage external contact listings for your Village.
• •Portal Conversations — Handle conversations with external contacts through the Village portal.
• •Contact Submissions — Review messages submitted through your Village’s contact form.

Analytics and Monitoring

• •Analytics Dashboard — View usage statistics, engagement charts, member growth, and export data as CSV.
• •Audit Logs — Every administrative action is recorded. Browse, filter, and review the complete audit trail.
• •Monitoring — System health and performance overview.
• •Portal Analytics — Analytics specific to your external portal activity.
• •Platform Updates — View bug fixes and feedback resolutions from the platform team.

Configuration

• •Settings — Configure Village-wide settings including features, vocabulary, and security policies.
• •Governance — AI governance rules, transparency controls, and constitutional principles.
• •Village Federation — Manage federation agreements and cross-Village discovery.
• •Portal Triage — Configure email triage rules and confidence thresholds.

Data Management

• •Backup and Restore — Create and manage backups of your Village data.
• •Family Tree Import — Import family tree data (GEDCOM files) for family-type Villages.

7. Settings You Will Configure

During setup and beyond, you control how your Village works through several configuration areas.

Feature Phases

Your Village reveals features progressively through six phases (0-5), giving members time to learn before introducing new capabilities. All features are available at every subscription tier — phases control when they become visible to members. You choose when to advance.

Phase 0: Dashboard, Stories, Members, Chat. Phase 1: + Video Calls, Calendar, News. Phase 2: + Documents, Polls, Resources, Serials. Phase 3: + Family Tree, Federation, Portal. Phase 4: + Smart Inbox, AI Settings. Phase 5: Everything.

Vocabulary

Customise any term used across your Village. Eight key terms are highlighted during setup:

• •Village name (how your community refers to itself)
• •Content terms (what you call stories, both singular and plural)
• •People terms (what you call members, both singular and plural)
• •Activity terms (discussions, gallery title, contribution page heading)

Security

• • Two-Factor Authentication Policy — Choose from three levels:
  • –Optional — Members can enable it if they wish.
  • –Recommended — Members are encouraged to enable it, with periodic reminders.
  • –Required — Members must enable two-factor authentication within a grace period (configurable from 7 to 90 days, default 30 days).

Two-factor authentication uses time-based one-time passwords (TOTP), compatible with any authenticator app. Eight backup codes are generated for account recovery.

Smart Inbox

• •Enable or disable email-to-content processing
• •Set the auto-publish confidence threshold (default: 70%)
• •Set the review threshold (default: 60% — below this, content is flagged for manual review)
• •Manage whitelisted and blocked sender addresses
• •Configure default content visibility for auto-published items

Privacy

• • Default Content Visibility — Choose the default for new content:
  • –All members — Visible to everyone in the Village
  • –Selected members — Visible only to specific subgroups
  • –Only me — Private to the author until they choose to share

Calendar

• •Set default holiday regions for your calendar
• •Configure how important dates are tracked and displayed

8. Privacy and Security — Your Responsibilities

Your Village is built on a members-only architecture. There is no concept of a “visitor” or “public access.” Every person who sees content in your Village has been invited, has created an account, and has signed in.

Visibility Levels

Every piece of content in your Village has a visibility setting:

• •All members — Everyone in the Village can see it.
• •Selected members — Only members of specific subgroups can see it.
• •Only me — Private to the author.

These are the only options. There is no “public” setting because there is no public access.

Two-Factor Authentication

Two-factor authentication (often called 2FA) adds a second layer of security beyond a password. After entering their password, a member must also enter a short code from an authenticator app on their phone.

As the owner, you decide the policy:

• •For a casual community group, optional may be fine.
• •For a family preserving sensitive documents, recommended gives members a nudge.
• •For any Village handling confidential information, required ensures every account is protected.

File Security

All uploaded files are validated for type, size, and format before they are stored. The system checks file extensions and content types to prevent harmful uploads.

Audit Logging

Every administrative action in your Village is recorded in an audit trail. This includes:

• •Content moderation decisions
• •Member role changes
• •Security configuration updates
• •Backup operations
• •Settings modifications

Audit logs can be filtered by date, category, severity, and the person who took the action. They are retained for two years.

Data Protection (GDPR)

Your Village includes tools for managing data subject requests:

• •Consent Management — Members control their consent preferences, including separate consent for AI features (triage memory, OCR memory, summarisation memory).
• •Data Export — Members can request an export of their personal data.
• •Right to Erasure — Processes for handling deletion requests.

9. Your Setup Journey

When you are ready to configure your Village, you have three paths to choose from.

Path 1: Guided Wizard

A step-by-step walkthrough at your own pace. Progress dots show where you are, and you can jump to any step. Best if you prefer to be guided through each decision.

Path 2: Self-Directed Checklist

All seven setup steps displayed as a checklist. Complete them in any order. A progress bar shows your overall completion. Best if you already have a clear picture of what you want.

Path 3: Scheduled Setup

The same seven steps, spread over approximately one week. You receive email reminders when each step is due:

• •Day 1 — Village Identity and Features
• •Day 3 — Vocabulary and First Moderator
• •Day 5 — Invite Members and Security
• •Day 7 — Create Your First Content

Best if you want a structured pace with gentle nudges.

The 7 Setup Steps

Whichever path you choose, the steps are the same:

1. 1 Village Identity — Name your Village, write a short description, and upload a logo. (Estimated: 5 minutes)
2. 2 Choose Features — Review which features your Village will use. All features are available at every tier. The system suggests a starting phase based on your Village type. (Estimated: 5 minutes)
3. 3 Customise Vocabulary — Review the terminology the platform uses and change any terms to better fit your community’s language. (Estimated: 3 minutes)
4. 4 Invite Your First Moderator — Send an email invitation to someone you trust to help manage the Village. This step is optional — you can do it later. (Estimated: 3 minutes)
5. 5 Invite Members — Add email addresses for the people you want to join. You can start small and invite more people later. (Estimated: 5 minutes)
6. 6 Security and Privacy — Set your two-factor authentication policy and choose the default visibility for new content. (Estimated: 5 minutes)
7. 7 Create Your First Content — Write your first story, news post, or event. This gives your Village something for members to see when they arrive. Optional, but recommended. (Estimated: 10 minutes)

You can also book a one-on-one setup session with a platform representative at any point during the process. Available time slots are shown in the booking system, and sessions can be scheduled at least 24 hours in advance.

10. Getting Help

You are not on your own. Several support channels are available:

• •Tutorial System — Built-in tutorials with progress tracking. Modules cover the same topics as the moderator accreditation path, so you learn the platform as you use it.
• •In-App Help — Contextual guidance throughout the platform.
• •Setup Session Booking — Schedule a one-on-one session with a platform representative to walk through configuration together.
• •Email Support — Reach the platform team directly for questions, issues, or feedback.
• •Platform Updates — A dedicated page in the admin tools shows recent bug fixes and improvements based on community feedback.

11. What Happens Next

Here is your path from here:

1. 1 Accept your invitation and create your account (if you have not already).
2. 2 Choose your setup path — guided wizard, self-directed checklist, or scheduled over a week.
3. 3 Work through the seven setup steps at whatever pace suits you.
4. 4 Invite your first members — even two or three people is enough to bring the Village to life.
5. 5 Your Village is live when you are ready. There is no launch button. As soon as members can sign in and see content, you are up and running.

Take your time. A Village grows best when it grows deliberately.

This document was last updated on 11 February 2026.